Timeline of modern history (1930-1939)
(Continues from years 1914-1929) 1930s: The Path of No Return 1930 Events in Eurasia *'First Levantine War:' **'Jihadia falls back'. Upon request by several powers, the Vidalian Black Fleet sails out of Sevastopol on 31 January and begins a campaign of terror against Jihadian interests throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea (after some considerable concessions to Britain for use of the Suez canal), and take Aqaba. **'Mecca is razed.' Despite having won a crushing victory against inferior forces, Balcha's army occupies Mecca but is nearly destroyed when the city is razed by incendiary devices, destroying 20% of the occupying force. Balcha desecrates the only part of the Muslim pilgrimage complex left by hewing down the pillars of Mina. **'Vidalian forces annex Egypt' after tricking the British garrison into granting access to the Red Sea. A column of so-called "consultants" arrive in Suez on 6 February. They infiltrate the British Army and empower Vidalist elements to seize control. The all-new Workers' Republic of Egypt is thus born. **'Morocco declares war.' Fearful of Vidalist designs on Southern Europe, Benito Mussolini is dispatched by the European Community to Damascus (the provisional capital of Jihadia) and Marrakech convince the Moroccans and Jihadians to make peace and cooperate against the "Red atheist scum". **'Caucasian Vidalist Republic'. Aided by Armenian survivors of the 2nd Genocide and all-new LV-19 tanks, Vidalian forces seize Yerevan and Baku. Massive massacres of Muslims by Vidalists and Armenians alike occur as Vidalists plunder holy shrines and markets. A host of Armenian bandits/paramilitary forces, the Death League, form the government of the Caucasian Vidalist Republic. Although Vidalia controls Jordan and the Caucasus, it is finding it difficult to keep up with the tactics of constant harassment and sniping preferred by the Jihadian forces. *'Ireland revolts.' A revolt in Ireland is unable to be repressed by British forces, drafted into fighting for South Africa. The British Empire withdraws troops from Ireland, which descends into anarchy and chaos. *'Ireland joins the CFNE.' Throughout 1930, the Irish paramilitary, the Blueshirts, fight a chaotic civil war throughout Ireland and succeed on 1 November. A referendum held by the Blueshirts favours joining the Community of the Free Nations of Europe, which is ratified in both Hamburg and Munster, the capital of Ireland, on 26 December. Events in Africa *'Boer separatists start the Third Boer War' on 8 January with a military coup, understanding this time that they cannot survive without the goodwill of aboriginal blacks in Africa. Great Britain attempts to mobilise forces, but South Africa and Rhodesia are lost in the first 2 weeks of the war as Boer and black alike throw off the British yoke. The newly formed republic of Free Orange is first recognised by the Community of Free Nations of Europe and the Bolivarian Republic, as well as India and Morocco. Many veterans of the Fourth Great Northern War, including Vidalians, flock to South Africa, much to the Alliance's dismay. *'Kampala Mutiny:' **'African troops mutiny in the Liberty Street barracks' in Kampala when it is known that indigenous black troops will be sent to kill black rebels assisting the Boers in South Africa on 18 April. The rebellion is led by 3 personalities: the charismatic Brigadier-General Adi-Sams Dengu, and the Bananius family, headed by Lawrence and Yolanda Wafa Bananius, head of the Mtenda Merchants' Guild of Kampala. With most of Central Africa gone and Egypt gone, the British Army is left with its possessions in Kenya, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean and the British Isles. **'British Empire in Africa is shattered'. As of now, British troops are forced to operate from bases lent out by the Reich in Namibia, Tanzania and Guinea, or from the fortress in Mombasa. White citizens and colonists on the wrong side of the line fear for their lives as muntinous African troops rape and kill their way from the Sahel all the way to the borders of Lesotho, while the numbers of refugees crossing in different directions results in confusion and massive collateral damage. 1931 * Sacred Empire of Tibet established. Under the influence of Jihadian agents, Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama, declares the founding of the Sacred Empire of Tibet. * Free Republic of bUganda established. The Free Republic of bUganda, with its capital in Kampala, is created with approval from ESL forces. There is no president, only a General Staff of 9 people, including Resident-General Adi-sams Dengu chairing meetings. Lawrence Bananius is made Minister for Finance while his wife Yolanda becomes the Minister of Health. * Vidalists consolidate control in Middle East. The Armenian Death League is escorted to the newly build capital of Vidalopol to attend a summit. En route there, the aerostat they were using to travel there mysteriously explodes, killing all Armenian members of the summit. Vidalia imposes martial law throughout the Caucasian Vidalist Republic and suspends elections "until further notice". * Vidalist activity increases throughout the British Empire. Because of the loss of manpower and material experienced during the fruitless and unceasing African theatre of war, Vidalist teachings spread like wildfire throughout British-held lands. Labour strikes and sit-ins are as common as American National Guard being called in to restore order throughout Quebec and Newfoundland. * First Levantine War: **'Treaty of Meymand'. Although Vidalia has managed to occupy Aqaba and the Caucasus, it offers a ceasefire with Jihadia, which willingly accepts. This leads to the Treaty of Meymand, signed on 18 October. The treaty stipulated that Aqaba be returned back to Jihadian custody; the Caucasus remain with Vidalia; and Vidalist aid to the Egyptian Workers' Republic and the Abyssinnian Empire was to cease. The treaty also stated that maritime access to waters under Jihadian or Vidalist control was to be shared by both signatories. At the signing of the treaty, the only belligerents in the Arab Wars are now Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Jihadian-Moroccan alliance brokered by the CFNE. Vidalia emerges stronger from the war with enlarged territory and a new ally, Egypt (although it cannot be said that both allies can fully support each other). **Morocco attempts an invasion of independent Uganda, but is repulsed at a heavy cost of life. 1932 *'bUgandan revolution continues. '''All throughout the year, British forces based in East Kenya continue to fight a losing battle to retake the British Empire's possessions in Africa, but are consistently outnumbered and undersupplied. Some help is given by sympathisers in Egypt and German volunteers, but the war is clearly a stalemate if not at an end. *'First Levantine War''' **'Balcha captures Hejaz'. Throughout 1932, the whole of the Western Arab Peninsula falls to Balcha's forces, but generally most fighting has slowed to a near halt. The only fighting continues around the Horn of Africa and Southern Arabia as well as within Abyssinnian-held territory. **'Haile Selassie II proclaims the creation of the Empire of Ethiopia'. In response, the Caliph Al-Assad recites the'' Sura' l-Feel'' in person each week after Friday prayers in an effort to remind Jihadians that they can still win this war, until the end of the war. His sermons are sufficiently popular that massive traffic jams all but bar the way to the Grand Mosque in Damascus. **'CFNE signs JV contract with Jihadia'. In an effort to develop each others' resources better, European firms sign joint ventures with Jihadia, which prove to be successful. Most of them are directed at increasing crop yields of the Fertile Crescent and exploration for oil in Iraq and minerals throughout Iran. **'Beirut Incident'. Crates with food and new weapons, particularly machine guns, are seized by a Padanian flotilla while en route to the Red Sea. As the ship carrying it is an American ship, this causes a diplomatic crisis as the European Community is worried that the Federal Alliance is aiding Balcha's army in the Middle East. The American president Jefferson Davis II simply dismisses it as the work of a few "rogue companies", and promises to investigate the arms smuggling. 1933 Events in Eastasia *'The 13th Dalai Lama dies.' His position is taken over by a Regency Committee to await the emergence of the 14th Dalai Lama. *'Khyber Pass sabotaged.' On the dawn of 20 January, a massive explosion rips apart several bridges leading from India into the Khyber Pass. The Confederacy of India is quick to blame it on the Jihadians, but the Jihadians instead deny responsibility, citing that it was the work of either Vidalian or Horde agents in India. *'First Levantine War:' **'Desperate and starving, renegade Anglo-German troops '''fall under the leadership of a rogue captain, Horst Zorndorf, who advises that in order to survive, it would be better to pillage Ethiopia rather than continue to die for the defence of the British Empire. Surprisingly, some of the local chieftains are willing to help them out of a need to help other Christians and they subsequently start a civil war, dooming Balcha Safo's expedition to the Middle East. The raid is a disaster for those factions within the GRO who stood to profit from drilling rights in the Hejaz. Haile Selassie II is killed and his family flees to the Egyptian Workers' Republic, and go their separate ways. **'Jihadia defeats Abysinnia'. Lord Balcha Safo, out of resources and in desperate need of supplies from Britain, decides on one last stand: attack Damascus. Following Lord Balcha's death during a failed cavalry raid into Hama, Abysinnian forces are in full rout, intensifying further the conflict back home. **'End of the First Levantine War'. Although they lost territory to Vidalian encroachments, there is a mood of celebration and victory throughout the Middle East as forces liberate Mecca for the first time in almost 4 years. The Black Stone is brought out of its hiding place and reinstated at the Ka'aba after sufficient repairs and renovations are carried out at the end of the year at the Great Mosque of Mecca. Jihadia is at the height of its power, being the most "desirable place for the Faithful to live" as declared by the Istanbul-based publication ''The Golden Age. The economic strength of Jihadia is unrivalled elsewhere throughout the non-European world, save by the distant ESL in Japan, as it becomes the African terminus for the "New Silk Road", and its war economy continues running for trade with Africa and Asia, since many of its key industries were based in Turkey and Iran. Now, African commodities are traded in Jihadia in return for supplies and manufactured goods, which are becoming ever more increasingly important as the long fruitless war in Africa drags on. **'Africagate': A Senate Committee in Washington studies rumours of Federal aid to Ethiopia, and eventually discovers that diverse business interests, particularly petrol companies, as well as members of the British Royal family were all involved in attempting to manipulate Ethiopia into invading Jihadia. In an attempt to save his family reputation, Edward VIII of the British Empire abdicates and leaves his post at GRO, while those petrol companies involved suffer on the bourse and are bankrupted, and Jefferson Davis II is impeached on charges of wilful neglect of duty! 1934 Events in Africa *'Resident General Adi-sams Dengu dies' in mysterious circumstances. His body is found hanging from the ceiling of his room one morning by a military orderly, with a suicide note nearby. Fearful for the future of the Republic, the General Staff unanimously elect Lawrence Bananius as President, and he assumes dictatorial powers. *'President Lawrence Bananius is crowned' as the monarch of bUganda later in the year. In a glitzy ceremony held on Namirembe Hill, Bananius renews his vows with now Queen Yolanda, and is installed as King Lawrence. He declares the creation of the Great Trans-Sahelian Tribe, and proclaims himself as King of Africa. Events in Oceania *'Eden's Assets'. The disgraced companies of the 1933 Africagate scandal are now dissolved. The Edens, a family of oil magnates, are the main beneficiary of trusteeship over the dissolved companies and become the talk of the town. *'"The Summer of Discontent'". Back in the British Isles, the monarchy is taking many hits to its reputation and street fights have broken out between the Vidalist-styled British Communist Party, and Oswald Mosley's Silvershirts, modelled after Mussolini's Fascists who seek to break with tradition and unite with the rest of the European Community. A third faction are the monarchists, but with the army underpaid and poorly equipped, it is impossible to avoid the new civil war taking place across the channel. All Europe watches on with anxiety: **'Street fights break out in January in Manchester', as leftist marches by the Goldstein Brigade, an offshoot of the British Communist Party, run into Silvershirts and local police. **'Armed uprisings in Western Australia', hit by poverty, are more common with militants claiming allegiance to the Goldstein Brigade burning down police stations and redistributing land. The British Army is ineffectual due to losses of manpower in Africa; the Royal Navy can only look on as Perth burns. **'Back in Halifax, global trade is stymied' and the Grocers' and Retailers' Organisation is suffering due to a loss in trade. There are now whispers of a conspiracy to merge the British Empire with the USA to form an Atlantic Federation. 1935 Events in Oceania *'Rise of the Republicans.' Frustrated with the chaos going on in England and at the ineffectual Royal family, the American Republican Party creates a new wing to accept their disgusted British compatriots into the fold. **'ESL annexes Western Australia.' Meanwhile across the seas, the freshly deployed American Task Force is now concentrated on rounding up the "bush rangers" who rule Western Australia, but given the inexperience of Governer Stanley Midden, in charge of rounding up the insurgents, the operation costs more in human lives than expected. The ineffectual governer, frustrated at his job, is greeted by an ESL military official who suggests something else: a joint operation to clear out the rebels who have been plaguing both the Federal Alliance and the Empire. Midden consents, but no sooner that the rebels are smoked out does the worst begin: the Japanese do help out in breaking down the Goldstein Brigade, but they do more: they take over towns throughout Western Australia, and begin raping, looting and killing whatever was left and eventually turn the communes into slave camps. Outmanned and outgunned, and a de facto prisoner of ESL hiospitality, Midden commits suicide over his stupidity. The Senate, in briefings with the CIA are shocked and look for an answer to ESL aggression in the Pacific. **'Race riots rock America and Oceania'. Although the Empire apologises for the conduct of its troops in Australia, it is adamant about returning Australia back to America, and offers to hand over the men responsible to be tried in an American court and pay a large sum of money to keep Western Australia. Although this is unanimously decided upon by the British government, the American public is not so pleased that white lands and people on them were ceded to people they considered as unhygenic yellow demons. The KKK, increasing in strength and targeting the Asian community, starts "No to Blood Money " rallies throughout North America. The rallies get out of control as white supremacists lynch thousands of Asian immigrants lynched and torch businesses throughout New York, California, Montana and Virginia. **'Revolution in Southeast Asia'. News of the riots reaches Subic, Manila and Zamboanga, which result in a fresh round of protests that sadly result in race riots targetting white people throughout the Philippines. Southeast Asia is lost to a grinding guerilla war which the Americans can never hope to win, led by Manuel Quezon in Luzon, while a jihad ''is declared against Christians in Mindanao, Borneo and Alliance-held Malaya. The result is the creation of the Republic of the Philippines, and the Federation of the Sultanates of Free Malaya. *'Elections throughout the Commonwealth''' of the British Empire confirm the results: the Republicans are in control of the House of Commons, and commence discussions on dismantling the House of Lords. The move is a success as the Life Peers, already guaranteed a seat in the GRO, relent. *'Republicans march on Washington.' The resounding victory of their Britannic peers gives the Grand Old Party, hitherto downbeat, a brand new lustre, which builds its activities around fighting communism and totalitarianism in Northern America and Australia. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes on 8 November when a Republican march is disrupted by members of the KKK and the Goldstein Brigades. What happens is a massive, 3-way street battle that reveberates through Washington for days to the extent that the Army is forced to restore order, but the damage is done: 300 people are killed in the 9 days of the brawl. Events in Africa *'The ''Derg, a group of colonels, destroy all Anglo-German resistance''' throughout Ethiopia, and proclaim the creation of the People's Republic of Ethiopia on 25 October. *'Emperor Mobutu of the Angolan Empire dies', and is succeeded by his son Mobutu II. Mobutu II is a hated man due to his links to his corrupt father and his tendency to favour the company of young men over women, casting a shadow over his reputation. Events in Eastasia *'Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere'. In the meantime, the ESL convinces Western Australia, India, the Federation of the Sultanates of Free Malaya and other states to "join an economic union" called the "Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere." The Philippines, worried of an invasion by the Atlantic Federation, accepts. 1936 Events in Oceania *'Hallowe'en Night Horror.' A bomb explodes during a Hallowe'en Mask'd Ball being held at the New York Opera House. Young Janus Eden and his wife, the Republican candidates for the 1936 election are killed. No parties claim responsibility, but all fingers point towards the Goldstein Brigade. The Oval Office suspends the electoral campaign, and declares a state of emergency until the Goldstein Brigade is finally brought to justice. Events in Africa *'Outbreak of the War of the Angolan Succession:' **'Africa's largest war to date' breaks out on 25 March, as a failed coup results in Angolan army commanders taking sides. The fighting is bloody and brutual, conducted using old Lebel rifles and machetes: ***'Royalist forces are initially successful '''in defending Luanda long enough for the young Emperor Mobutu II to be taken away to Cabinda to safety, but there is only so much they can do. ***'General bloodbath in Luanda''' as the Angolan Imperial Foot Guards slaughter Portuguese citizens suspected of aiding the enemy. **'An emergency meeting in Geneva' by the Western European powers convinces the CFNE to get the Reich to open up military access in Guinea to Morocco, and for the Ajamid Sultanate to take action on 9 April on behalf of the rebels. **'Bolivarian interest' in the war manifests in the Recife Declaration on 20 May, stating that the Bolivarian Republic would make the Republic of South Africa a protectorate and use military force in any event that South African soverignty was challenged. **'Vidalia, irked at the initiative of the Egyptians' its dedication to the sovereignty of the fledgling Ethiopian Republic and condemns the "reactionary bellicosity of the Egyptian hypocrites." In a press conference at Vidalgrad, Grand Leader Vidal calls upon the Vidalist workers to "Free your brothers in Africa of the mummied navel-gazers who do not understand the benefits of Vidalist Communism!" **'The war escalates:' ***'The Trans-Sahelian Tribe enters the war'. Delivering a rambling speech from Kampala and declaring royalty "to be Gods' gift to mankind and the power of command the birthright of royalty", King Lawrence declares war on the CFNE and Morocco, and invades Western Africa to interdict the arrival of Moroccan troops in Luanda on 28 June. ***'Egypt enters the war.' The Egyptian Workers' Republic pledges support to Vidalist generals in Angola and declares war on both Morocco and the Trans-Sahelian Tribe. Special Military Comissar Yunus Hamid Dertouzous denounces the Tribe as a "ramshackle feudalist tyranny that should have never seen the day" and its ruler as "an old feudal plutocrat as irrelevant as his gods." **'In Angola, the loyalists managed to hold the cities for a time', but were eventually beaten back by rebels who were now led by Boer veterans in service of the Bolivarian Republic. Although the rebels eventually took the cities, the fighting soon settled into a general insurgency, with the railways built by Mobutu I being destroyed or smelted into extra machetes by loyalist forces at the end of the year. **'In North Africa', the main theatre of war was in Northern Sudan, as Egypt tried in vain to prise more of the Nile Valley away from Trans-Sahelian forces. Using antiquated British armour and tactics would have worked against a Vidalian force, but the hit-and-run tactics used by the Jihadian auxiliaries of the Trans-Sahelian Tribe slowly wore them down. **'Fighting also broke out in Guinea' as loyalist forces tried to fight their way across Reich-held Africa to reunite with Trans-Sahelian forces. Most of the time, many battles were simply attacks on poor, landless peasants with nary a gun or a knife to use as a weapon and the movement of soldiers did more harm to the land than any battle did. Some battles did break out between Germano-Moroccan garrisons and loyalist Angolans, but a great deal of the war was indecisive. 1937 Events in Africa *'War of the Angolan Succession:' **'Khartoum falls.' Throughout the war, countless inconclusive battles were being fought throughout Northern and Western Africa, but with very little success. One bright spot (for the Egyptians) was that Khartoum fell, completely intact, into Egyptian hands in mid-March. **'First use of aircraft by native Africans. '''In an attempt to stop repeated incursions into Reich-held Guinea by Angolan forces, the German-trained Royal Maghrebine Air Force, equipped with vintage biplanes, strafes Matala, Menongue and Luena. Against this neither the Vidalist nor loyalist factions have any proper equipment, and the long war soon results in disproportionate casualties and the destruction of the loyalist logistics system. **'Fall of the Ethiopian Derg. By his sheer control of pecuniary resources gathered as a lawyer and then the owner of Africa's first multi-conglomerate, Lawrence Bananius convinces 2 Derg ''colonels to defect, letting in Jihadian-trained Somali and Eritrean auxiliaries to enter Ethiopia. By the end of the year, it is clear that the ''Derg is nothing if not an embarassment to aspirations for a Vidalist East Africa. Events in Oceania *'''More woes for America. Finally sobering up to the threat of an ESL invasion, the Alliance sends a joint Anglo-American naval force to take back the Philippines from Darwin, declaring war on the ESL. However, victory is too far away for the short-sighted politicians: the Philippines are impossible to take back via conventional means: guerillas and local defence forces make short work of riflemen and tanks in the mountains of Luzon, while ESL naval squadrons captained by Indians and Malays make resupply impossible, except by air. The battle reaches a stalemate by late summer, and is stuck. Worse, this sours relations between the Alliance and Jihadia further and deepens the rift caused by the Beirut Incident. *'America goes ''"Bachwärts!" Further disgrace for America's ruling parties comes in the spring as newspapers reveal that the British Royal family and the American president, Archibald Harding and a substantial part of the Senate and the FBI's chiefs have all been adherents to the Vorwärts! movement, based on correspondence materials from von Salviat found amongst their personal effects. There are murmurs of a pan-European conspiracy, and a purge of the government. Lower-ranked officials are sentenced to prison, while the American President is impeached in Congress, and the British royal family is exiled to Mexico. Stoked by yellow journalism warning of a global conspiracy brokered by Europeans and Vidalians, there is a great mistrust of foreigners, especially towards Ashkenazim Jews because of their perceived links to the Salviatist movement, marginalised by its involvement with Mosley's Silvershirts. *'''Race riots in Southern US. Galvanised by the war in Africa, black activists begin to agitate for better conditions, demanding that Washington make good the promises made to them almost 78 years ago by Abraham Lincoln. The protests are the targets of violence by the KKK, who lynch and burn black neighbourhoods throughout the rural hinterlands of Missouri, Georgia and Texas in the late winter of 1937. Federal forces are slow to arrive, but by the time they arrive in spring, the whole Southern USA is a battlezone being fought over by white supremacists and Afro-American political activists. *'Outbreak of the Second American Civil War:' **'Goldstein Rush.' Because of extreme poverty and suffering, the Goldstein Brigade becomes sufficiently popular that uprisings occur throughout California, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, thus starting the Second American Civil War. At the same time, the Mormons revolt and create the Mormon League from the cities of Utah. Federal Forces are hard pressed, and in many cases, whole battalions in the Western USA desert to join them. **'The Atlantic Federation. '''Elsewhere throughout America and the British Empire, there are political rallies in all major cities by local Republican party branches, all calling for the dissolution of the Federal Alliance and the creation of a new political body that would look after their lives and property. On 5 July, the interim President of the USA, Johnny Glover, declares the dissolution of the United States of America. It is his last act in office, but Senate and Congress remain along with the House of Commons and the GRO to discuss what to do next. 1938 Events in Eastasia *'The Islamic Caliphate of Jihadia is now the world's most prosperous nation', after the Anglo-American dominated Atlantic Alliance, across the seas. The lucrative trade (even if it is disguised as a "mutual aid pact" between Jihadia and Vidalia means that Jihadia is well on the way towards self-sufficiency with imports of Salviatian manpower and Vidalian advisors (although these are actually agents provocateurs), but disaster strikes. Almost simultaneously at the Feast of Muharram, clerics in Morocco and India issue ''fatwas deeming that: **The leader of Jihadia, Khaled al-Assad, is the prophesied Masih ad-Dajjal; **The introduction of a ruling clergy obliged to listen to the advice of their people is a gross violation of what Islam should actually be; **The Jihadians' continued hosting of "foreign" elements also violates the Qur'anic principle that Muslims must not rely on non-Muslims for political support; and **Lastly, any Moroccan or Indian discovered to harbour any pro-Jihadian sentiments are to be tried as religious apostates by a religious tribunal. *'Tibet attacks'. Not willing to be left out of the game, Tibetan forces with SAO approval annex Qinghai. Events in Oceania *'Tales of the Weird and Unexpected'. *'Tales of the Living Dead.' Possibly one of the more sensationalist if not bizarre chapters in American history, over the many years from 1938 there are reports of human corpses coming back to life again and feeding on the still-living. Although accounts of these tales are dismissed as drunken bar talk from Confederate redneck reservists, international interest picks up one day when contact with rural settlements deep in Louisiana are lost, and eyewitness reports of these undead creatures, or zombies are they are called, increase rapidly during the monsoon season in Haiti and Martinique. Sufficient curiosity is engendered that a ceasefire between Federal and Confederate forces is called, and scientists from Europe, the Atlantic Federation and the Bolivarian Republic arrive in the Caribbean and the former Southern United States. What those researchers discovered remains classified information, but it may be interesting to note that on the delegation sent by the Reich was a young military cadet named Peter Saubermann... *'Blockbuster movies.' Nevertheless, credible or no, the story of reanimated corpses terrorising their loved ones who had to yet kick the bucket caught the public's imagination, particularly one Russ Meyer. Producing a gripping movie with state-of-the-art special effects and gore, he went on to produce "Night of the Living Dead", the first of many zombie-themed films that would earn him millions and even allow him a place at the GRO representing the Federal entertainment industry. 1939 *Unable to come to a decision on whether to call for elections, the Federal Senate and House of Representatives agree that the role of President and Cabinet will be taken over by the GRO and its leadership. While the legislative and judicial capitals remain Washington DC in Virginia cantonment, the new executive branch, the GRO, remains in Ottawa. *In the early hours of dawn during Fajr prayers, bombs go off in the Deir-el Hiqmah Legislative Complex in Damascus, killing over 100 worshippers. Emergency laws are passed throughout Jihadia by the Caliphal Shura' and a fatwa is issued the same night against those who coordinated the blasts. 1940s: The Great Game Events in Oceania *'Brave New World Order'. With the sundering of the former United States of America in the Second Civil War, the whole of Oceania is now a house divided. **'Atlantic Federation:' The self-proclaimed heir to the USA and the British Commonwealth, the Atlantic Federation is a sprawling mass of former nations, covering north-eastern America, the British Isles (exculding Ireland), Eastern Australia, Hawaii, Aotoarea and several possessions throughout the Caribbean. **'Southern Confederacy:' Born out of the struggles between black people and white racial supremacists, the Southern Confederacy is a white racialist state that practises slavery in the former Southeastern United States. **'Vidalist Republic of North America:' Covering a swathe of land from former California down to the borders of Mexico, this cannot really be considered a nation, but rather a collection of rural farming communities populated by all sorts of "unsavoury" pacifists, runaway black slaves, Red Indian tribes, New Ager paganists, and other folk unworthy of either the Confederacy or the Federation. *'The Tapioca Affair.' In the summer of 1940, a diplomatic crisis broke out in the New World: the wife of the Jefe of the Bolivarian Republic, General Tomas Teodemiro Tapioca, ran away from her sumptuous palace in San Theodoros, reputedly to elope with a Confederate sailor with too much time on his hands. **'Casus belli:' The elopement resulted in a diplomatic crisis when Meche Tapioca was found later in a seedy hotel in Houston, naked and strangled to death. Naturally, General Tapioca's sexual pride was dented, and he tried to assuage it by sending some lowly colonels to literally yell words in the faces of the Federal Embassy in San Theodoros, that would make the Mother Superior of the Holy Order of Santa Maria de Cordoba blush to death, but to no avail, given that the Atlantic Federation was neither in control of nor responsible for the actions of the Southern Confederacy. **'Start of the Confederate War.' Enraged, the General recalled his troops from the African front, invaded Mexico, annexed Cuba and Jamaica from the Federation, besieged Houston and Jacksonville, and even sent agents to level the White House, not realising that the capital had been moved to Ottawa. By August, Bolivarian troops and marines were raping, looting and killing throughout the Missisippi River Valley (helped in no small way by countless American Jews and blacks for whom being sold to Asia and Salviatia as slaves was not an option). And the Confederate leadership holed up in Charlotte, seemed next... 1949 * * * *'Maratha Conference'. At the Maratha Conference held at Pune, the Tibetan Empire is partitioned but left alone, ending its decade-long feud with the ESL. The commanderies of Qinghai and Xizang are ceded to the ESL, and Tibet agrees to become an ESL protectorate, with the blessings of the Salviatian and Vidalian delegates to the Conference. (Continues at years 1950-1970)